Gunsolley: The near-drowning of affordable housing in Houston

﻿﻿Kids who ﻿grow up in mixed-income communities are given access to better schools and surroundings.

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff

When Harvey's torrential rain poured on to Texas, the entire nation watched as Houstonians waded through waist-deep water and lost their homes and loved ones to the floods. In the aftermath of destruction, what the nation hasn't seen is a growing affordable housing crisis in Houston.

The storm destroyed over 15,500 homes in Texas and damaged more than 200,000. One in six families in the Houston Housing Authority's portfolio received some type of hurricane damage to their home.

Many of the city's low-income, elderly and disabled residents were acutely aware of Houston's affordable housing crisis prior to Harvey. However, homeowners who needed to relocate after the storm were astonished to discover how sharply rent prices had soared and the compromises that must be made to find safe, quality rental units they could afford.

For a long time, Houston was considered an affordable place to live, with competitive salaries and manageable costs for homes and rental prices. However, we're seeing a growing trend in which housing prices are soaring and incomes are not rising at proportional levels.

Residents can't keep up with this disparity and many become cost-burdened, meaning they spend 30 percent or more of their monthly income on rent. More than 200,000 families in Houston fall into the category of cost-burdened.

According to one study, for an individual to live in Houston comfortably requires an annual salary of $56,223. That's a gap of over $10,000 from the $46,187 area median income. On top of this, U.S. Census data indicates more than 400,000 Houston households are making less than 80 percent of the area median income and qualify for housing assistance. An additional 155,582 families are living in poverty.

HHA, which exists to provide quality, affordable housing, is serving more this year than ever before, yet we are only able to serve a fraction of the Houstonians who need help. HHA also administers the nation's third-largest voucher program exclusively serving homeless veterans.

With the demand for affordable housing increasing, the supply does not meet the demand. Some of the people who qualify for assistance in Houston include first-year firefighters and police officers, municipal workers, young adults who just left the foster care system and kindergarten teachers who have just begun their careers.

With Harvey incurring damage at the majority of the properties owned by the Houston Housing Authority, the affordable housing crisis has worsened. At the HHA, our priority remains the safety and well-being of our more than 60,000 residents. Because of hurricane damage, we had to evacuate and repair hundreds of units, putting our residents at a great inconvenience.

Prior to Harvey, HHA had two developments in the works to become options for federally-assisted housing, one of which was damaged during the storm. The other development is set to open in 2018.

Affordable housing is what we know and work for. As we begin the long road to recovery, our goal is to not only repair our existing units but also to build more to serve Houstonians. We do not intend to take away the vital affordable housing that our community needs, but we need the support of the community to be successful.

While some may hold the belief that affordable housing lowers property values, studies show that these developments typically have no significant impact on surrounding home values. In fact, kids who grow up in mixed-income communities are given access to better schools and surroundings, thus improving their quality of life and the amount of taxes they pay over a lifetime with higher earnings.

As we work to rebuild, I ask the Houston community to have an open mind to new affordable housing developments in the city, so Harvey victims, low-income, elderly, disabled and veteran residents can be better served.

Many families served by HHA and working toward economic self-sufficiency experienced major setbacks, and if it was difficult to make ends meet before the storm, it was nearly impossible to do so in the wake of destruction.

While national attention and headlines fade away from Houston, we will still feel the very real effects the storm had on our city for years to come. Now, more than ever, it is essential for us to come together to rebuild our community for all parts of our community.